


reach out, my love ( and just drown with me)

by elssiie



Category: Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: Alternate Universe - 1920s, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Enemies to Lovers, F/M, Family Drama, Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, Lust, Passion, Slow Burn, Smut, UNTIL THEY DON'T, Unresolved Romantic Tension, Unresolved Sexual Tension, and, and rey is elizabeth, basically ben is mr darcy, ben needs to learn how to talk to girls he likes, but once a feral woman always a feral woman, confused idiots in love, in the later chaptes, lots of, mentions of - Freeform, rey tries to be a strict governess, they annoy and hate each other, until they resolve it all
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-04-12
Updated: 2020-04-12
Packaged: 2021-03-02 02:54:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,101
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23617825
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/elssiie/pseuds/elssiie
Summary: "I haven't met a more infuriating man than you.""I'll take that as a compliment.""Don't.""Do you wish to hear an apology from me for us to communicate normally?"Rey stepped closer and fiercely declared, "I wish nothing from you if it isn't given to me with pure heart, without insincerity or pretence."***1920s AU.  Or: Rey is a governess hired from the Solo family to take care of the two orphaned children they were entrusted with. Ben is the mysterious son of her employers who decided to return home after many years of isolation. Words cut deeper than knives. Let the longingly stares begin.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 2
Kudos: 18





	reach out, my love ( and just drown with me)

**Author's Note:**

> I've been writing this for months, so I'm really happy to be able to share this story with you all. I haven't shipped anything so strong as I ship Reylo. They truly express everything I want from my (future) significant other. Fingers crossed I do them justice with this fic.

## reach out my love ( and just drown with me)

****

_“love takes off masks we fear we cannot live without and know we cannot live within”_

James Baldwin

***

* * *

Chapter 1

“Mary and Charles Andor! Come out right this instant or I swear once I find you there will be a lot of tickling for you two.”

Rey carefully looked around the room. Though there was a great variety in choosing a hide place, she was sure they were here. To say that the Skywalker estate was enormous would be the underestimation of the century. The mansion was at least twice the size of the town-hall, with dozens of guest rooms, three living rooms, a music room, a library, four study rooms and two dining rooms, a modest one for the use of the family and another for special occasions.

Oh. And a ballroom, which Rey reminded herself, hadn’t been used in a long time to her surprise. Mrs. Solo adored the social gatherings, particularly when they were held at her own home. _To keep my enemies on a familiar ground_ , she once had told Rey, _that way I can subdue them more easily_. Politics and mind games. Rey had a little knowledge of the world her employer triumphed in and held no interest in learning more. Enough reason for her to respect Mrs. Solo, who truly knew her way around those kind of things. A rare trait for a woman in times when females still fought for their rightful place.

Rey bit her lip as she searched behind the piano and around the armchairs. Maybe she was wrong after all. Her mind must have played a trick because she was absolutely sure a few moments ago that she glimpsed the children’s shadows disappearing in the music room. Just as she was turning around to look somewhere else for them, her peripheral sight caught a movement to her right. Under the heavy curtains, dropping from the ceiling to the ground, the half of a white shoe moved just a tiny bit. Rey came closer, trying to make as little noise as possible.

“I caught you!” She swiftly opened the curtains and the twins screamed in a weird mix of excitement and fear. Rey smiled.

“Now here’s your punishment,” she said, and her hands roamed wildly over their tummies as they begged for her to stop. Rey continued until she saw tears from laughter shining in their eyes. “Do you promise not to delay your baths anymore?”

Mary couldn’t stop her hysterical hiccups to answer but Charles nodded. “Yes. Yes. Yes.” The boy gasped, desperately trying to take a breath. He showed her the hole from his recently fallen tooth as he smiled brightly. “Ms. Rey, we promise.”

“We surrender,” Mary laughed, it seemed she finally found the strength to talk.

Rey lifted her eyebrows in suspicion. Both nodded their heads and stared at her with open wide eyes full of mischief and happiness. Oh, they were absolutely lying to her face. She was sure this hide and seek-before-bathing thing would turn into a tradition for them. But there was no way she could get any sterner while being blinded by their cute innocent faces. 

Rey sighed. “Okay. Now go and take your bath before Mrs. Phasma comes down. And you will- “

Mary slipped away from Rey’s hold and ran up the stairs. “Thank you, Ms. Rey. I love you.”, the girl loudly giggled as she disappeared on the second floor.

Rey couldn’t help the smile spreading on her face as her chest filled with warmth. She turned to Charles. “And you. What are you still doing here? Go after your sister.”

Charles’ tiny hands warped around her skirt and he nuzzled his head between her legs. “I love you too, Ms. Rey. You are so much better than Mrs. Phasma.”

His voice was unusually quiet especially after a game like that. Rey gently patted his head. “Oh, Charles,” she said. “I love you both so much too. What happened with Mrs. Phasma that you ran away from her like that and even hid yourselves?”

His eyes blurred from the coming tears and Rey’s heart broke apart just a little.

“I told her I want to be a sailor when I grow up, a sea-farer, and to discover new lands and treasures just as James Cook did.” He’d become obsessed with everything sea-related after Rey read him a book about the most famous world explorers a couple of months ago. Rey could put two and two and understood what happened before Charles even finished his story. “Mrs. Phasma said that I can’t because it was all nonsense. She said I am supposed to become a gentleman but I don’t want to become a gentleman. I want to travel the seas. I hate her!”

Rey felt the need to go upstairs and have a little talk with Phasma because how dare she say those things to a five-year-old child. She knew Phasma was a difficult, strict woman but still…

“Shhh.” Rey crouched so that their eyes were on the same level. “Mrs. Phasma cares about you and wishes for you only the best, so don’t hate her, alright?”

He nodded reluctantly.

As his governess Rey knew she didn’t have to encourage their anger towards Phasma. After all, the older woman also had the task of taking care of the children and she did it almost everything quite well. Except for communicating with them.

She smiled, “But Charlie, listen to me. You can become whoever you wish to be. You have a choice. You will always have a choice. If you want to travel the seven seas, to have adventures, to be the greatest sailor the world has ever known, then you can do that if you put your mind to it. Nobody can take that away from you. Whatever dream you have, it is yours.”

Rey tickled him and he laughed, eyes brightly shining once again. She gave him a quick, strong hug and pushed his shoulders towards the stairs. “Now go after your sister.”

Rey watched as he disappeared from her sight. She loudly breathed out, wondering when would the right time be to talk with Phasma when a sudden voice interrupted her thoughts.

“How often do you lie these children like that?”

Rey jumped, turning around with a hand above her chest. A surprised gasp almost escaped her but she pursed her lips on time. The voice came from an unknown man. He was leaning against the door with hands deep in the pockets of his dark suit. The first thing her mind focused on was his dark hair, effortlessly covering his ears. It was too long to be thought of as appropriate in the society. The second thing she realised was his question. She must have heard him wrong.

“I beg your pardon?” Rey asked.

His voice was calm but low and undeniably rude.

“Don’t fill their heads with unnecessary gibberish.”

Rey straightened her back unconsciously making herself taller. “I do not fill their heads with _gibberish_. I am telling them the truth. No one has the right to decide their lives for them.”

The man chuckled with obvious mockery. His eyes lazily roamed around the room and his next words came out slowly as if she herself was a child in need of careful explaining. “When someone like them has the privilege of being raised in a family like this one, their choice in everything they do automatically disappears.” He spited out the word “privilege” as if it was poison. His eyes focused on her ones more. “It’s better to learn this as early as possible lest they will be disappointed in the future.”

Rey was left completely stunned, her eyes widening at the absurdity of this conversation. Who did this… this dark and brooding man think he was? How dare he talk about Mr. and Mrs. Solo in that way?

“Don’t you think your manners are severely lacking, sir? You are talking behind the backs of the people, whose house you are in right now. I have not been informed that there would be guests this evening. Who exactly are you?”

Her tone was more than reprehensible. Rey was aware of the angry spark glistening in her eyes but she couldn’t help it. This stranger wasn’t rude to just her. He had the nerve to insult her employers, who also happened be one of the most kind and humble people Rey has ever had the fortune to meet. His intent gaze traced over her figure from the feet up to the head, appraising her. Rey didn’t appreciate being the target of this examination. In fact, she felt rather uneasy. It all reminded her of a time when she’d been small and insignificant and anyone could hurt her. Back then there too had been men like him in her life. Threating, predatory and crude. She refused to succumb to the feeling of vulnerability that suddenly awakened in her.

Rey clenched her fists, raised her chin and bravely met his dark eyes.

He lifted an eyebrow, impressed or surprised, she couldn’t tell. But Rey was certain she’d left some kind of impression on him.

“Oh, Ben!” Leia Solo was coming down the stairs. “Ben, what a…what a lovely surprise. We did not know you would be coming home today.”

Leia’s face was glowing with happiness as if the sun itself graced them with its presence. Rey’s eyes shifted from Leia to the man and then back to Leia.

Ben? That name was so familiar. Rey felt his eyes on her again. He seemed amused by her confusion. What in the world was going on?

The man, Ben, turned towards Mrs. Solo, the infuriating smirk coming down from his face. His lips pressed together, “Hello, mother.”

Rey blinked.

Mother.

Leia’s voice trembled as she drew near him. “Ben.”

She reached her hands to him as if to hug him but stopped herself unsure of what to do, affection and hurt dripping from her expression. Rey had never seen Mrs. Solo make that kind of face before. Leia was always so sure of her actions. But now… it was like someone had brought her mask down and shown all the delicateness hidden deep inside her.

No. Not someone.

Her son.

Ben Solo threw a quick glance towards his mother’s reaching hands, which were still aimlessly hanging in the air but he only nodded and cleared his throat. An awkward silence fell over the room as Leia slowly put her arms down. Nobody knew what to say or do.

Rey decided it was time for her to leave when her heart painfully skipped a beat, reacting to the family reunion. “I’ll uh…” she made a couple of steps back and lifted a finger behind her shoulder.” I’ll go upstairs to see how are the children.”

The mother and the son both shook off the trance they had fallen into. Those confident features Rey had used to see on Leia’s face returned as if the last minute was a mere dream.

“Thank you, Rey.” Mrs. Solo smiled. “We will be expecting you for dinner. I’ll be sure to tell Maz to prepare the best meals this evening.” She glanced at Ben Solo. “To celebrate you coming home.”

Ben Solo frowned but didn’t object. Leia gulped but didn’t lift the smile from her face.

Dear God, this was so painful to watch.

“I don’t mind eating in my room or in the library. It will be… a family dinner after all. I don’t want to intrude.” Rey said with a slight tremble on “family” and mentally slapped herself for not being strong enough to not make that mistake. She felt the man’s focus on her again but stubbornly refused to show him attention.

“Nonsense, dear.” Leia answered. “You know you are always welcomed to sit on the table with us. I will take offence if you refuse me.”

Rey forced a smile. “Alright. I’ll leave you for now.”

Her posture was stiff. Her hands were playing with one another. Her expressions were over the top. Rey knew, she truly realized what a weird reaction she made to the sudden appearance of the family’s long lost son. She was glad Leia was busy with her own emotions otherwise there would undoubtedly be some really uncomfortable questions to answer.

Rey had to get away from that room before she showed more of the bitterness that started forming in her chest. She turned around and headed for the stairs. Behind her the two family members picked up their conversation.

**Author's Note:**

> My twitter:   
> https://twitter.com/eleena999
> 
> My ig:  
>  https://www.instagram.com/elssiie.art/
> 
> my youtube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCZitlRUziAlvEwsr3FvNGoA


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